Dr. Malcolm Dallas McLean

Malcolm Dallas McLean passed away in Georgetown, Texas, on January 19, 2012 at the age of 98. He was a prominent Texas historian and internationally published author on Texas history, including Papers Concerning Robertson’s Colony in Texas (19 vols.), listed as an essential reference on Texas history. A fifth generation Texan, he was born in Mud Springs, Texas in March 1913 and grew up in Belton. McLean received his BA at the University of Texas at Austin in 1936, his MA in 1938 from the National Autonomous University of Mexico in 1938, and his PhD from the University of Texas at Austin in 1951. In 1939 he married Mary Margaret Stoner of Uvalde County. McLean was appointed the Assistant Director of the Museum of the San Jacinto Monument in 1939 when it opened. During World War II he worked in military intelligence, specializing in Latin America, and had a desk at the Pentagon when it was first opened. After the war he taught Romance Languages at Ethe University of Texas while pursuing his doctorate and later became an associate professor of Romance Languages at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville. He served as the director of the Bi-national Center in Tegucigalpa, Honduras for U.S. Information Agency from 1956-1959, and in Guayaquil, Ecuador from 1959 to 1961. In 1961 Dr. McLean joined the faculty of Texas Christian University as Associate Professor of Spanish and Director of TCU's summer program in Mexico. He was appointed Associate Dean of the ADDRan College of Arts and Sciences, and later Associate Dean of the University, while advancing to full professor. During this time he continued his research on the colonial Texas and the Robertson Colony. In 1976, Dr. McLean took up a professorship in History and Spanish at the University of Texas at Arlington, where in addition to teaching and research, he prepared the Robertson Colony papers for publication. He founded the UTA press in 1977, and left teaching to become the director of the Robertson Colony Collection at UT Arlington and work full time on the many volumes of the Robertson Colony Papers. He retired in from that position in 1992. Dr. McLean was the founding president of Phi Beta Kappa at TCU, and was elected president of the Texas Foreign Language Association in 1964. In 1994 he was inducted into the Texas Institute of Letters. He is survived by his son John Robertson McLean (Ellen), grandsons Malcolm Hugh McLean and Douglas Duncan McLean (Luciana), and two great-grandchildren. Burial will be in the Robertson Plantation family cemetery in Salado, Texas on Saturday, January 28, 2012 at 2:00pm. Gifts in memory of Dr. McLean may be made to the Salado Historical Society, P. O. Box 251, Salado, Texas 76571. Dr. McLean’s full Curriculum Vitae is available at http://lonestar.texas.net/~mdmclean/MDM_BIO.html Personal words of comfort may be sent to the family online at www.gabrielsfuneral.com.